Abstract
The authors studied the age at which the first word appeared and a variety of first words in 788 children with perceptive deafness by a question to their mothers in a first consultation in Visual and Auditory Research Institute of Fukuoka Medical Association during last 4 years. The results were as follows:
1. In all children with deafness within 30 dB, The first word appeared up to the end of one year of age and in all cases with deafness within 45 dB, the first word appeared up to the end of 2 years of age. In 96% cases with the hearing loss within 60 dB, the first word appeared up to the end of 2 years of age.
2. There were 197 children who did not speak any word in a first consultation. 98 % of these cases had the hearing loss beyond 61 dB and the greater part of these cases had the severe hearing loss beyond 91 dB.
3. Speech sound of a first syllable of the first word was studied. The percentage of labial sounds were 50.8 %, the most of all and that of vowels were 42.6%, next to labial sounds. In comparison with the data in children with speech disorders without deafness, there was the more percentage of vowels and the fewer percentage of another consonants except for labial sounds in deaf children than in children with speech disorders without deafness.
4. With regard to a variety of the first word, there was the greatest percentage of words with foods and those with family members were in the next place. In comparison with the data in cases with speech disorders without deafness, there was the graeter percentage of words with foods and the fewer with another articles in deaf children than in speech disordered without deafness.
